Finding Common Ground Between Designers and Developers

Design and development are two different states of mind. To get a project out the door, however, they must overlap. We found this truism while developing our new Spec Mode feature, which allows designers to assign code to different elements in their UXPin prototypes.

Both designers and developers have key differences — and understanding these differences is the first step to bridging the gap between worlds.

(Note: this list applies to designers and developers in general based on our experience talking to both camps, and is not intended as a hiring guide or career affirmation.)

Designers design for the majority of users. Developers sweat over edge cases.

Designers rely on experience to guide their intuition. Developers rely on experience to avoid repeating mistakes.

They have their differences, but they also have their similarities — most notably, a common desire to do great work on time and under budget. The more they acknowledge their differences, no matter how small, the sooner they can learn to work together more efficiently, eliminate guesswork, and build great products together.

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Ben Gremillion is a Content Strategist at UXPin. He’s worked as both a web designer and a back-end developer. On the side he builds and maintains a CMS for webcomic artists, and participates in annual NaNoWriMo challenges.

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